#65 The Grand Morass

Age: Geologic

Hidden or Lost?: Forsaken

History: In the dry desert expanse known as the Red Sand Maris, there is a cursed and mysterious canyon system known as the Grand Morass. Filled with parched, wind-burnt canyon tunnels and towering geologic cathedrals, the Grand Morass actually takes its name from the smothering malevolent force of despair that seems to emanate from the very stone.

One of the most beautiful sites within the Maris, the Grand Morass has attracted countless visitors, but all have regretted the trip. Any who descend into the cool shadows of the canyon system are immediately overcome with a sense of hopelessness. Thoughts become loose and unfocused, and self destruction begins to feel like the only path forward.

Many brave explorers have tried to explore the Morass to discover the truth behind the power that sits in those depths. Those who were able to return with a shred of sanity describe half-forgotten scenes of madness and melancholy unleashed. They tell of eroded bowls in the red rock where travelers have simply given up on life, lying down and allowing the packs of wiry, mange-stricken coyotes that roam the Morass to eat the living flesh from their bones.

In one dead-end cove, the canyon’s stone walls are covered in an endless recursive poem that has been scratched into the rock, the ground covered in the bones of those who died simply trying to finish the pointless verse with their own pained stanzas. There is the field of pits most have described simply as ‘The Buzzing,’ thanks to an overwhelming psychic noise that assails all who enter the area, causing them to distractedly plummet to their deaths. Even stranger is the Honorable Quadrille, a stone cove that is home to a group of eternal knights whose minds were broken by the realization that their honor and dedication were meaningless. They now spend eternity prancing the steps of a violent, self-flagellating dance, drawing in and bludgeoning anyone who gets in their way.

But the largest and most mysterious landmark in the Morass is the Wailing Village. Located at the heart of the canyon system, the ancient abandoned settlement has just one resident, whose wails can induce madness or death to any who hear them. Some believe it is this mystery figure’s sorrow that gives the Morass its terrible power.

Whatever it was that infused the Grand Morass with its deadly aura of sadness and pain, its tears are far from done.

1. The Featureless Descent

2. Cove of the Dying Light

3. Hanging Bend

4. Wrong Choice Junction

5. The Acquiescence

6. Coyotes’ Feast

7. Sorrow’s Pass

8. Despair’s Corridor

9. The Lonely Seat

10. Pits of the Guilty

11. The Great Dead End

12. The Honorable Quadrille

13. Lost Hope

14. Wailing Village